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August 11 - Is Iraq Unravelling? Is the Natural Gas Boom Contributing to Global Warming; The Mediocre Mind Behind Tea Party Philosophy
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We begin with the rising death toll in what appears to be a resumption of the Sunni/Shia civil war in Iraq that General Petraeus’s much-praised “surge” was supposed to have ended. Iraq expert Juan Cole joins us to discuss the impact that the Syrian civil war is having on the restive Sunni Anbar province on the Syrian border that has become a haven for jihadists of the so-called Al Qaeda in Iraq. |  |
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Then we assess the extent to which the much-touted shift to cheap and abundant natural gas as a less-polluting source of energy that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming is a lie. Deborah Goldberg, the Managing Attorney at Earthjustice joins us to discuss how the benefits of the natural gas boom that has the U.S. surpassing Russia as the world’s biggest producer, are offset by the leakage of methane from “fracking” which causes seepage of methane, a far more damaging greenhouse gas thirty times worse than CO2. |
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Then finally, with the leadership of the Republican House unable to calm their own caucus threatening to shut down the government again, we look into the philosophical underpinning of the Tea Party radicals bent on sabotaging the government no matter what the consequences are for the nation. Michael Lind, the co-founder of the New America Foundation and author of “Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States” joins us to discuss his latest article at Salon, “How Did Ayn Rand Become a Hero of Right-Wing Nerds Everywhere?” |  |
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August 8 - Greece's PM at The White House as Unemployment Reaches a Record High; Preparing for Another War with Hezbollah; Shut Out of ALEC
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We begin with today’s White House visit by the Greek Prime Minister Antonio Samaras where Obama called for a balance between austerity and growth so the Greek people could “see a light at the end of the tunnel”. The Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University Andre Gerolymatos joins us to discuss today’s announcement that unemployment in Greece has reached a record 27.6% with youth unemployment at 60%. |  |
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Then we look into the extent to which the Israeli public is being prepared for a war with Hezbollah, following a briefing yesterday in which senior military officials warned that the next war with Hezbollah could involve up to 100,000 longer range, more accurate rockets with larger warheads than the 4,000 that rained down on Israel in the 2006 war. Daniel Byman, a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and author of “A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counter-Terrorism” joins us to analyze these latest rumors of another war. |  |
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Then finally we hear from “Background Briefing’s” special correspondent at the 40thALEC convention in Chicago, Lauren Windsor, the host and producer of “The Undercurrent” on the Young Turks network. Along with most of the press, she was denied access to the secretive meetings between mostly Republican State legislators and the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council whose model bills like the “Stand Your Ground” legislation continue to be adopted around the country. We discuss how the protests outside resonated on the secret meetings taking place on the inside. |
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Despite Lauren Windsor's credentials as a reporter for Background Briefing, she was denied entry to the ALEC convention. However, she managed to get an interview with Ohio State Representative John Adams who participated in the convention. Listen below. |
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August 7 - Obama Cancels on Putin; Media Properties as Playthings for Billionaires; The Washington Post Company's Rotten Core
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We begin with today’s announcement from the White House that President Obama is cancelling his summit meeting with Russian president Putin but will attend the G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg. Kimberly Marten, a professor of political science at Barnard College of Columbia University joins us to discuss how much the Snowden affair affected the decision and the other irritants besetting bilateral relations like Putin’s assault on LGBT rights. |  |
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Then we speak with media analyst Robert McChesney, co-author with John Nichols of “Dollarocracy: How the Money-and-Media-Election Complex is Destroying America”. Following the purchase of the Washington Post by the billionaire owner of Amazon, we look into how failing newspapers and magazines are become playthings for billionaires, and discuss the collapse of the news media in which professionalism has been replaced by commercialism as resources for reporting are cut, and investigative journalism is all but eliminated. |  |
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Finally, we examine the most lucrative part of the Washington Post Company that was not sold to Jeff Bezos, and that is the Kaplan for-profit division which accounts for 55% of the company’s revenue. David Halperin, a senior fellow at Republic Report where he has the article “Bezos Purchase of the Post Leaves Graham with Kaplan For-Profit College” which is also at The Huffington Post, joins us to discuss how the Post’s former owner got the White House to water down rules that would have held these predatory diploma mills that saddle students with crippling debt, accountable. |  |
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August 6 - The Real Causes of Instability in Yemen; Assessing Iran's New Leader; Arbitrating in Baseball's "Age of Prosperous Turmoil"
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We begin with the U.S. withdrawing its diplomatic personnel from Yemen as it urges its citizens there to leave for fear of an impending attack from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Charles Schmitz, the president of the American Institute of Yemeni Studies joins us to discuss the narrow focus the U.S. has on Al Qaeda when Yemen’s greatest security threats come from its own political and economic instability. |  |
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Then we look into the remarks that the new president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, made at his first press conference where he called for “serious and substantive negotiations” to end the standoff with the P5+1 over Iran’s nuclear program. Nader Hashemi, the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver joins us to discuss the new face on the same regime beset by rampant inflation, shrinking foreign reserves and an expensive proxy war in Syria. |
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Then finally we speak with William Gould who arbitrated the 1992-93 salary disputes between the Major League Baseball Players Association and the Major League Baseball owners. The author of “Bargaining with Baseball: Labor Relations in an Age of Prosperous Turmoil”, we discuss Alex Rodriguez’s forthcoming appeal of his record suspension and possible lawsuits to come, as well as the apparent availability of illegal steroids and growth hormones that are readily accessible in the Dominican Republic where most of the 13 suspended players come from. |
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August 5 - When Monopolies Rule Our Access to Communications; Al Qaeda is in Iraq for Real This Time; The Lure of Performance Enhancing Drugs
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We begin with the growing public outrage over the standoff between the two corporate giants Time Warner Cable and CBS who in the last 12 months earned $7.65 billion and $3.65 billion in profits respectively. Susan Crawford, who served as Special Assistant to President Obama for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy and is the author of “Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age” joins us. We discuss what recourse customers who are being denied service they are paying for, have, given the passivity of the FCC and the absence of a Congress more beholden to contributors than constituents. |
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Then we examine the irony that one of the lies Bush/Cheney sold to get us into the Iraq war, their claim that Al Qaeda was setting up a base in Iraq, is now becoming a grim truth as Al Qaeda in Iraq’s Sunni resurgence against Maliki’s corrupt and sectarian government gains momentum. Peter Van Buren, a 24 year veteran State Department official who served in Iraq and is author of “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People” joins us to look into the fragmentation of a country the Bush Administration liberated, that is now dominated by Iran. |  |
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Then finally, we speak with an expert on drugs in sports, Dr Gary Wadler, a physician and Chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List and Methods Subcommittee. We discuss today’s suspension of 13 baseball players, including three-time American League MVP Alex Rodriguez who will be sidelined for 211 games through the 2014 season. We discuss the problem that won’t go away and what can be done to clean up sports. |  |
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